Kriek | North by Northwest Restaurant & Brewery

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Bottle. Unlabeled bottle with cap that denotes it as the north by northwest kriek. Poured into my Lost Abbey tulip glass a dark murky red color with a rosy collared head. The nose is acidic with cherry undertones. The smell is really fruity and nice. Fairly sour with a tart cherry flavor. Some acetone undertones as well. Overall, this is a cool attempt at a kriek. The fruit is nice and the sourness is nice.

Entering this one from notes from a tasting a while back... inflatablechair and I enjoyed some great beers.. this one came on the tails of Alpine Chez Monieux..

I received this in trade from MiguelMandingo.. Michael is a fantastic trader... He deserves some serious props.

Poured into my La Trappe goblet... good head and a deep amber with red highlites..

Sweet cherries and a very mild acetic component .. sour but not what I was expecting.. the cherry plays a huge role.... Pleasant and by no means overbearing.

I wish I would have taken better notes.. I love sweet cherries ... I wish more Belgian style kriek's used them .. the fruit element is in the front with minor vinegar and just traces of lactic elements.. yeasty/bacteria play a mild second fiddle..

The carbonation is fairly high.. but the body is nice.. there is something lacking... I would guess this is SS aged not wood ... not exactly world class .. but still very very nice. and much better than Chez Monieux...

4/4/4.5/4/4.5

MiguelMandingo is an epic trader... I would feel honored to go around again... Thanks Michael.

Big thanks goes out to our favorite South Carolexan, stopbarking, for this ultra rare sour. A great opportunity.

Pours a VERY beautiful deep deep ruby color with an almost purple hue to it. The head is a very light pinkish color and is quite prominent for the style. Lingers longer than most, and leaves ok lacing, but not alot.

The nose is quite good. A lot of sour, tart brett in the nose, and noticeable cherry flavor. More cherry in the nose than your average kriek.

Taste is quite good. A lot of cherry flavor in here. There is a sweetness that is not found in alot of krieks. The cherry is there for sure. A nice tart beer. Not overly tart, but not lacking in any way, pretty much right where it should be in that regard. This one starts off with a bang, but doesnt quite ride all the way through, as the slight overcarbonation almost cuts off the flavor right on the finish. It comes back in the aftertaste, but there is an akward small blank spot in the middle of the palate. I like this one alot, but it needs some minor adjustments. I really like the added cherry boost this one has. Solid.

The mouthfeel is where this one struggles the most. The tartness is great, and in the thickness i find no flaws, but this one (at least in the bottle) is noticeably overcarbonated. Not severely, climb out of the bottle so, but still so much that it dampens the experience just a bit.

Drinkability is quite good, would be VERY good if it was not for the carbonation issues. Dont know what the abv is here, i would guess straight up 5, but either way it drinks well, and is not too hot, or abrasively sour.

Overall I am very impressed with this Kriek from NxNW. If the carbonation was toned down a bit, which it probably is on tap, this one would be excellent, and stand up to the belgian big boys. I really like the boosted cherry flavor, and the color is simply amazing. Good to see some more good sours being produced in the good ol USA, and GREAT to see more good beer coming out of another state that has a "that state has no good beer" stigma on it. Wake up folks. Craft beer is sweeping the nation. Great brew.

Poured into my Lost Abbey stem glass. GUSHER! I was literally rushing to the sink. Calmed down about 5 minutes later and I was able to pour. A rosy pillow of foam fills about ¾ of the glass. Some soapy lacing sticks to the sides and a nice ring forms. The beer itself is a scarlet, opaque, hue. Would have given this beer a lower score due to the gushing but it sure looks pretty in the glass.

Smells very oaky with hints of vanilla, a handful of cherries, vinegar, and sweet malt in the background. Cider aromas, sour apples, pears, and a bit of grapes too. Nice combination of sweet and tart fruits. I'm also picking up some pineapple, kiwi, and nectarine. There's also an element of powdered sugar on the front of the nose as well as dried fruits (apples and pineapple). It has an aroma that reminds me of a raspberry vinaigrette.

Sweet cherries and malt upfront with an oak and vanilla finish. The tart cherries also come through in the end. Lemony and tart finish. Raspberry and other berry flavors near the finish. Very clean finish, sparkly like champagne. Mmm, crispy green and fuji apples.

Very carbonated and almost fizzy on the palate, thin but very drinkable.
Thinner than other Flanders Reds.

Well, it's not really a Kriek, and not really a Flander's Red either-- somewhere in between. The beer base is a stanard sour Belgian beer with tart berry notes, hints of vineous and woodiness and a hint of funk. The body lacks the firm malt base for a Flanders, but not candy-sweet enough for a Kriek but does show subtle character of both. A mild malt base struggles to support the sourness and cherry flavors but does keep the beer from complete astringency and thinness. Hops are light, but do show some American citrus notes which I find quite pleasant. Somewhat lemony and berry-like to go along with the added fruits. Still a fine beer that I enjoyed quite well, but it doesn't represent styles well-- let's just call it a Belgian sour beer with cherries added.

Sampled GABF 2008
Pours with a murky, cherry red color and only a touch of head. The aroma is lightly tart with an expressively fruity, tart-cherry note to it. The cherry actually dominates the aroma pretty well and, while a very nice cherry expression, does not allow a whole lot of other aromatic notes to be noticeable. I do like that this is more of a tart cherry focus, rather than a syrup-laden cherry character that can be found in many a beer with the name Kriek on the label.

This is only lightly tart and it still has a fair amount of sweetness to it (though it is not sticky sweet), which really accentuates and amplifies the cherry flavors. The sourness is has some light lactic notes to it, but also seems significantly contributed by the cherries themselves. It is light enough to be drinkable, but definitely has some texture and body to it. It is perhaps a bit sweeter than I prefer in a Kriek, though it doesn't have the cloying-sticky-sweetness of something like the New Glarus beer, and it could definitely use some a more aggressive sourness, but it is still quite drinkable and I was quite happy to sample this multiple times (though I always went for the NxNW sour first).

Pours a hazy maroon-ish, dark cranberry color with no head. Smell is tart cherry, sweetness, and a bit of vinegary sourness. Taste is quite sour with a hint of funkiness perhaps and a noticeable sweetness, but nice. Some grainy flavors along with the sweet and sour cherry and light carbonation. Pretty tasty and fairly drinkable for the style.